To avoid an NFL lockout, let’s stop breaking the bank with rookies

Dec 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I recall being with my father when he was ‘recruiting’ free agent Mark Murphy at the Dulles Marriott. Mark Murphy makes very good sense in this column.

 

To avoid an NFL lockout, let’s stop breaking the bank with rookies
By Mark Murphy
Friday, December 17
The Washington Post Op-ed

As the college football bowl season kicks off, many players will no doubt begin focusing on the possibility of playing in the National Football League. I was there once. Although not drafted out of Colgate in 1977, I was offered a rookie free agent contract with the Redskins that year – for $21,000 plus a $2,000 signing bonus. I decided to put my whopping $14,000 offer from General Electric on hold and give the NFL a shot.

I was lucky enough to make the team and still have vivid memories of my rookie year, as well as my full eight-year career with the Redskins, especially taking part in two Super Bowls and being one of the few Redskins to play for both coaches George Allen and Joe Gibbs.

During those years, I spent a good deal of time working with the NFL Players Association on behalf of my fellow players. We felt we had to change a system that was not working for us. The rallying cry was “We Are the Game.” We sought a guaranteed percentage of revenue and went on strike twice in the 1980s to force changes. We didn’t achieve all our objectives, but we did lay the foundation for a system that now provides players with approximately $4.5 billion a year in compensation and benefits – almost 60 percent of total league revenue as defined in the collective bargaining agreement.

Today, as the president of an NFL franchise, the Green Bay Packers, I am on the other side of the bargaining table, but I understand the players’ views and am committed to reaching a new labor agreement that is fair to players, teams and fans. The NFL teams are united around improving a system that is not working as well as it should be. A balanced agreement is essential so we can improve the experience for fans and ensure that all 32 teams remain competitive.

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Filed Under: Issues

When the government rewards illegal behavior, we will get more illegal behavior.

Dec 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For Immediate Release:

December 18, 2010

Mt. Vernon, Va. – Former Governor and U.S. Senator George Allen issued the following statement today regarding the US Senate’s vote on the so-called Dream Act:

“If the government rewards illegal behavior, we will encourage more illegal behavior. The so-called “Dream Act” being pushed by Washington liberals like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Leader Harry Reid, and Senators Durbin and Kerry is a flawed piece of legislation that rewards illegal behavior with benefits paid for by taxpayers. It is unfortunate that Senator Jim Webb chose to put the political interests of his liberal colleagues before the valid concerns of Virginians.

“As the son of a legal immigrant, I believe in the American dream where immigrants legally come to these shores to seek religious, economic and political freedom. I strongly oppose rewarding illegal behavior through amnesty and believe our first priority needs to be securing our borders.

“As Senator, I supported numerous measures to enhance border security, to ensure that felons and criminals are not given citizenship, to protect the integrity of Social Security, to establish English as the official language of the United States, while also working to encourage legal immigration to attract the best and brightest to the United States. We need to be serious in addressing illegal immigration, and once again, Congress is choosing politics over sound policy.”

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Filed Under: Issues, Press Tagged With: ,

This Day in Thanksgiving History

Dec 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

“This is an interesting historical day of the first national day of Thanksgiving. We are thankful these days that the Lame Duck Congress has withdrawn the Omnibus spending bill due to opposition from We the People.” George Allen

December 18, 1777:

States give thanks

The new United States celebrates its first national day of thanksgiving on Thursday, December 18, 1777, commemorating the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga after the surrender of General John Burgoyne and 5,000 British troops in October 1777.

In proclaiming the first national day of thanksgiving, Congress wrote, “It is therefore recommended to the Legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES, to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for solemn THANKSGIVING and PRAISE; That at one Time and with one Voice the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor”

Neither when the Congress proclaimed the day of Thanksgiving on November 1, nor when the population celebrated in December, were they aware that on December 17, the French would finally formalize a military and trade alliance with the rebelling states. These were not disconnected events. The victory at Saratoga convinced the French king that the Americans might be worthy allies and the ensuing alliance made an American victory possible.

Merely having a national day of thanksgiving was a tremendous step forward in creating an American identity. Previously, the colonies had celebrated individually or as part of the British Empire. Now they had experienced an event that had affected them all and formalized a celebration that involved them all. With the French alliance, they had an ally who supported them all. Americans had just taken a major step on the tortured trail from colonies to states and from states to nation.

Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: ,

‘Omnibus’ Spending Bill Wrong on Priorities

Dec 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This obnoxious spending bill must be stopped. This ‘Omnibus’ spending bill is wrong on priorities; wrong in funding the unconstitutional, harmful government takeover of our healthcare; wrong in its excessive spending; and wrong for the people of Virginia and America.
 
After three years of rapidly escalating federal spending, our government cannot go into even greater dangerous debt.
 
The Washington liberals must be prevented from loading our children with more debt and diminishing their opportunities in life. It is immoral to cause such harm to the good men, women and children of our country.

This irresponsible spending fiasco fortifies my long-held view that the federal government needs to be reined in with a Constitutional requirement of a Balanced Budget and Presidential Line Item veto authority.
 
As House Republican Leader John Boehner has identified, here are some facts about the  approximately  2,000 page, $1.1 trillion ‘Omnibus’ spending bill:

  • 6,600: Total number of earmarks in the Senate  Democrats’ pork-laden omnibus spending bill. (The Hill,  12/14/10)
  • $78 Billion: Amount of taxpayer money that would be saved if Congress would adopt  the Republicans’ plan to cut spending back to pre-‘stimulus,’ pre-bailout  levels as outlined in the Pledge to America. (Pledge to America, Accessed  12/15/10)
  • $1 Billion: Funding included in the omnibus bill for the implementation of Democrats’ job-killing health care law, including $176 million to implement Medicare Advantage cuts.  (The Hill, 12/14/10)
  • 20,785: Number of earmarks President Obama signed into  law his first two years in office.  (Taxpayers for Common Sense,  2/17/10)
  • 84 Percent: Increase in non-defense discretionary government spending since  President Obama took office. (House Budget Republicans,  6/4/10)
  • $3.22 Trillion: Amount added to the debt on President Obama and Washington Democrats’ watch. (U.S. Department of the Treasury, Accessed  12/15/10)
  • 0: Number of budgets passed by Democrats this year.
Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: , ,

This Day in American Revolution/Tax History – The Boston Tea Party

Dec 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The original Tea Party was today. As we debate the federal government imposing dictates, mandates, onerous debt, job-killing energy regulations, death taxes and unionization on citizens and States, it is good to read real history below. We did not secede from the British monarchy to reestablish a government on the north banks of the Potomac which ignores the views and values of We the People.

December 16, 1773:
Sons of Liberty dump British tea

On this day in 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships moored in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the water.

Now known as the “Boston Tea Party,” the midnight raid was a protest of the Tea Act of 1773, a bill enacted by the British parliament to save the faltering British East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the company to sell its tea even more cheaply than that smuggled into America by Dutch traders. Many colonists viewed the act as yet another example of Britain’s taxation tyranny.

In most American ports, the resistance group known as the Sons of Liberty scared off British tea-carrying ships by threatening their captains with tarring, feathering or worse. However, when three tea ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor and the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England, Thomas Hutchinson, the British-appointed governor of Massachusetts, refused to permit the ships to leave. Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the now-famous “tea party” with about 60 members of the Sons of Liberty. The British tea dumped into Boston Harbor on the night of December 16 was worth more than $700,000 in today’s currency.

Parliament, outraged by the blatant destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, called the “Intolerable Acts” by the colonists, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British.

Source: History.com

Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: , ,

My Guest Blog on Bearing Drift

Dec 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Please read my guest blog post on Bearing Drift, “Omnibus Bill Must Be Defeated: Another example of Congress’s Dereliction of Duty“.

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This Day in Virginia/U.S. History – Bill of Rights is Ratified

Dec 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is a timely lesson in history securing Constitutional protection individual rights and the prerogatives of the people in the States. With Judge Hudson’s decision against federal government dictates, the Bill of Rights of our Constitution are vindicated.

This Day in Virginia/U.S. History 12/15
December 15, 1791:

Bill of Rights is finally ratified

Following ratification by the state of Virginia, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, become the law of the land.

In September 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. The amendments were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government would be reserved for the states and the people.

Influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the Bill of Rights was also drawn from Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason in 1776. Mason, a native Virginian, was a lifelong champion of individual liberties, and in 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention and criticized the final document for lacking constitutional protection of basic political rights. In the ratification struggle that followed, Mason and other critics agreed to support the Constitution in exchange for the assurance that amendments would be passed immediately.

On December 15, 1791, Virginia became the 10th of 14 states to approve 10 of the 12 amendments, thus giving the Bill of Rights the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it legal. Of the two amendments not ratified, the first concerned the population system of representation, while the second prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened. The first of these two amendments was never ratified, while the second was finally ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992.

Source: History.com

Filed Under: Issues Tagged With:

Winchester Star: “Our View: Hudson’s Ruling”

Dec 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Our View: Hudson’s ruling
Winchester Star Editorial
December 15, 2010

A blow for freedom, common sense

Without a doubt, those of a conservative mindset will see merit in U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson’s ruling, tendered Monday, that declared the “individual mandate” component of ObamaCare unconstitutional. But all freedom-loving Americans blessed with a modicum of common sense should hail the ruling as well.

Though Judge Hudson did not go as far as Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who filed the challenge, may have desired – i.e., strike down the entire law – he all but shredded the individual mandate. First, he summarily rejected the administration’s claim that requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance falls beneath the expansive umbrella of the Commerce Clause.

Government, Judge Hudson said, cannot compel individuals to engage in commerce if they choose not to. Nor can it penalize them for not doing so, particularly under the guise of labeling either the penalty or the mandate itself a “tax.” The administration hardly furthered its cause by initially denying the individual mandate was a tax, only to change its tune when arguing its case in court.

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Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: ,

Opposing view on ‘individual mandate’: ‘Unfair, harmful’

Dec 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In response to their own op-ed “Our View on ‘individual mandate’: Ruling on health law offers a victory to free loaders”, USA Today asked Governor Allen to offer a countering view:

Opposing view on ‘individual mandate’: ‘Unfair, harmful’
By George Allen
USA Today
December 14, 2010

The federal court ruling that the individual mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance is unconstitutional is a serious blow for the federal government’s takeover of health care. It’s also a clear victory for the people in the fight to restore the constitutional balance of power between the states and the federal government that is necessary to maintain individual liberty.

The Constitution was specifically designed to limit the power of the federal government. It provides only certain enumerated powers to the government, with all others being reserved to the people and the states. The Constitution does not provide the government with the power to force people to engage in economic activity, such as being required to buy health insurance.

This unfair, harmful, unconstitutional federal government takeover of health care and its odious mandates was ably challenged by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. If the federal government has the power to tell you that you must buy health insurance, then the federal government has the power to force Americans to purchase anything it determines is “good for you.” Such a government would be unrestrained and omnipotent, and “we the people” would be less free.

There are those who would forgo our constitutional freedoms because they think the federal law is good policy; no policy that undermines the Constitution and limits liberty can be considered good. The American people, led by the Tea Party movement, emphatically made that point clear during town hall meetings and at the ballot box.

Another reason why the federal government should not be permitted to usurp the powers of the states is that this government intervention prevents the states from serving as laboratories of innovation. Many of the best ideas come not from Washington but from states, localities and the private sector.

The federal takeover of health care, with its mandate that people purchase insurance or face a government penalty, is unconstitutional.

This decision is a victory for the rights and prerogatives of Virginians and potentially for people throughout our United States. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson properly arrived at a sound, constitutionally based decision, defending liberty against federal usurpation and dictates.

George Allen is a former Republican senator and governor from Virginia.

Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: ,

George Allen Reacts to VA Healthcare Lawsuit Ruling

Dec 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For Immediate Release:
December 13, 2010

Case is a reminder that Sen. Jim Webb ignored the views and values of Virginians with his decisive vote for the federal government takeover of health care.

Mt. Vernon, Va. – Former Governor and U.S. Senator George Allen issued the following statement today regarding the Judge Henry E. Hudson’s ruling on Virginia’s Constitutional challenge to the federal healthcare law:
 
“This case is a reminder that Sen. Jim Webb ignored the views and values of the people of Virginia with his many votes, including the one for Senate passage last Christmas eve, for this unfair, harmful, unconstitutional federal government takeover of health care and its odious mandates.
 
“This decision is a victory for the rights and prerogatives of Virginians and potentially people throughout our United States.
 
“I heartily commend Judge Hudson for his sound, Constitutionally-based decision and also thank Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli for defending liberty against federal usurpation and dictates.”

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Filed Under: Issues, Press Tagged With:
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